than machines, will probably become more desirable. This is such a long-range trend, however, that it is difficult to make bold statements about it.

The critical shortage of competent teachers emphasizes the necessity for making full use of the professional talents and energy of each teacher and not dissipating them in tasks not requiring professional competence. The obvious complexity of this challenge is a call to the very best in educational leadership, supported by systematic research. Effective education is achieved through purposeful, guided activity of the individual learner; and individual pupil-teacher relationships are the very heart of the educational process.

But this fundamental fact must not stand in the way of, nor hamper every effort to conserve the time and talents of the teacher for professional service. Wherever possible, teachers should be relieved of those routine tasks that may be satisfactorily performed by a person with less preparation and general competence. Progress in this direction must be made if the overloads which tend to frustrate teachers and limit their effectiveness are to be reduced. At least two avenues point to the accomplishment of this purpose: (1) Other specialized or nonprofessional people might be employed to perform duties not requiring professional preparation; (2) the services of the teacher might be extended and made more effective by appropriate reorganization of classes and use of audiovisual and other techniques and materials.

Many proposals have been made, and some research and experimentation is underway, to explore these avenues more fully. Such efforts are to be commended and encouraged, with appropriate safeguards to assure interpretation of the results in terms of their effect upon the educational process itself. To date it has not been shown that all such steps can justify a meaningful reduction in the number of competent teachers needed; there is encouraging evidence, however, that the teacher's effectiveness may be improved, that the status of teaching as a profession can be enhanced, and that the loss of teachers may thus be reduced.

This inviting field of research and experimentation awaits further exploration. Such efforts, if directed primarily toward increasing the teacher's effectiveness, should yield rich dividends.

Can the Teacher Shortage Ever Be Met?

Despite the fact that all sorts of pessimistic figures can be drawn on the subject, this Committee believes that the teacher shortage eventually can be met. For perhaps 10 years or so, the shortage will remain acute, but the most encouraging factor now at work is the attention which literally millions of American citizens are giving to

the needs of their schools. What the American people want, the American people usually get. If enough of them become sufficiently acquainted with the importance of teaching and the shortages now haunting their schools, they will want to meet the need for more and better teachers, and they will take the necessary steps to do so.

In addition, the important positive forces now at work are these: 1. The national income is at an alltime high and gives every indication of remaining high. Teachers' pay could be increased significantly, drawing more people into teaching and, at the same time, reducing the turnover of those already in the profession.

2. The manpower pool of youth reaching maturity-18- to 21-yearolds-is at the point of expansion after 10 years of steady decline; the bottom of just under 8 million was reached in 1954. The next few years will bring a steady increase.

3. After dipping sharply, college enrollments are at an alltime high and are expected to go much higher. An increase of 50 percent in the next 10 years seems to be a conservative estimate. If the total number of college graduates can be increased sufficiently, the teacher needs of the schools can be met without requiring an unreasonable percentage of those graduating from college.

4. The proportion of women in total college enrollments is increasing. This will be profitable to the teaching profession, because three-fourths of all teachers are women.

5. Since 1948, there has been a steady increase in the percentage of all graduates who prepare for teaching. The figure was 21 percent in 1948 and 30 percent in 1955. The increase has been in the group preparing for elementary school teaching, where standards have been raised most significantly.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Salaries provided for teachers should be established at actual competitive levels. Generally, salaries for teachers are too low. Normal increments should carry teachers' salaries to at least double the beginning figure. Teachers of outstanding excellence should be provided salaries in recognition of their contribution.

In view of varying conditions among the 52,000 school districts, the primary approach to the salary problem should be a local one. Citizens' committees should collaborate closely with committees of school boards, school administrators, and teachers in a joint study of salaries and wages in all occupations in the locality.

Once the salary structure is made truly competitive, it should be responsive to changing conditions; it should not remain static in the face of changes in the general economy.

The study of local conditions is the first responsibility of locally interested groups, but studies on a broader scale should go forward with equal vigor. State boards of education and the United States Office of Education should seek to stimulate local studies, and to organize and conduct studies at the State and national levels.

2. The teacher's job-in all subjects and at all grade levels-should be carefully analyzed to determine which duties can be safely and economically delegated to personnel not qualified as teachers. The major emphasis should be: to strengthen the effectiveness of the teacher's educational services to learners; to relieve the teacher of the many time-consuming tasks which may be as well done by persons of subprofessional or nonprofessional rank, and whose services are thus less costly; and to enhance the professional status of the teacher.

Justifiable opportunities to extend the services of a teacher to a larger number of pupils should be sought, tested, and evaluated. The use of modern radio and television techniques-wherever and whenever compatible with financial resources-should be explored. The responsibility for research and experimentation in this area rests primarily with school administrators, but committees of teachers, parents, and other local groups should participate in the formulation of plans and the execution of experimental steps.

The support of agencies beyond the local district-foundations, State departments of education, the United States Office of Education, professional groups of teachers, groups of lay citizens-should be invited and encouraged. Since education goes forward in more than 50,000 local districts, however, and since conditions and resources vary so widely, the final evaluation of proposals should always be made locally.

Experimentation and research should be unhampered by any existing assumptions and practices. But the primary goal, the education of children, should be carefully guarded in every case. In addition, full advantage should be taken of this opportunity to enhance the status of teaching-an important step in alleviating the teacher shortage.

3. College programs for the preparation of teachers should be made more functional, freed from needless repetition, geared to the abilities of the better students, and should provide greater emphasis on practical classroom experiences.

4. Much greater efforts must be made to identify high school students who would benefit from college and to interest them in going to college. This requires improved and coordinated counseling, beginning in the elementary grades and strongly emphasized throughout high school. This counseling must be extended to parents as well as pupils. Effective counseling is the firsthand responsibility of teachers,

counselors, supervisors, and school administrators. They should be supported by parents, school boards, and business and civic groups. The goal is not an indiscriminate increase in college attendance but much stronger encouragement for those with recognized ability. It is only by encouraging and enabling all able youths to attend college that the general shortage of trained manpower and the shortage of teachers can be met.

5. Much more financial assistance, where necessary, should be extended to capable students. Many more scholarships with occupational objective unspecified should be provided. This is a responsibility of individuals and of civic, business, professional, labor, fraternal, and social groups. In order to increase college attendance and thus increase the supply of potential teachers, State governments should determine whether the cost to the student of attending Statesupported colleges should be reduced to the lowest possible minimum and whether merit-type scholarships should be provided to needy students. Government scholarships should not be used to recruit for any specific occupation except in critical emergency situations.

6. Much greater financial support should be extended to higher educational institutions in order to reduce their need to pass along to the student their mounting costs of operation. This is a problem of rapidly growing importance.

7. Colleges should design their instructional programs to enable the maturing student to change his occupational objective without the penalty which is often assessed under present regulations. Reasonable flexibility should be an ingredient of undergraduate programs.

8. Encouragement of capable students to consider teaching as a career should start in the elementary and secondary schools. All teachers, counselors, and school officials have a primary responsibility for a realistic presentation of teaching as a profession to capable students. The United States Office of Education, State departments of education, and the professional associations of teachers, as well as colleges and universities and groups of interested citizens, should provide attractive materials and conduct active campaigns to interest students in teaching. Counselors should assume responsibility for assembling the full range of printed materials, films, and other media which contribute information.

High-school and college students with interest in teaching should be encouraged by organized groups, under the sponsorship of teachers who themselves have an enthusiasm for teaching. Such constructive activities are now in progress in many localities and should be expanded.

9. The various academic divisions of a college or university should extend their efforts to strengthen the teacher-education program. The well-rounded education of prospective teachers is the joint re

sponsibility of the department of education and the other instructional departments and divisions. If, for example, the present shortage of mathematics, science, and language teachers is to be met, all departments of the university must cooperate.

10. Since the preparation of teachers is not the exclusive responsibility of the colleges and universities, these institutions should extend to both the public and nonpublic elementary and secondary schools greater opportunities to participate in planning preservice programs. Every school administrator should provide for the continuous professional and cultural growth of teachers in service.

11. Recognizing that its responsibility does not end when the student graduates and enters classroom teaching, the teacher-preparing institution should maintain with its graduates a closer relationship designed to help with the orientation of every new teacher and to encourage successful teachers to continue teaching as a profession. This sustained relation with the new teacher should also be utilized as a means of strengthening the program for teachers yet to come from the institution.

12. School boards, the teaching profession, parents, and citizens' groups should accept a joint responsibility for the adjustment of new teachers to classroom service and to a place in the community.

13. Teacher-education institutions and departments of education in universities should be supported in accordance with the obvious importance of their function. Their budgets, their physical facilities, and the quality of their teaching staffs should be on an equal basis with other units of higher education. In general, this is not now the practice.

14. Colleges and universities should offer intensive programs of professional preparation to (a) teachers of experience who have been out of classroom service for some time and contemplate returning, (b) graduates of liberal arts programs who did not make undergraduate preparation for teaching, and (c) inadequately prepared teachers now in service on emergency certificates. These courses should be available at convenient times and places. The content of these courses should recognize the maturity and experience of these persons, many of whom do not wish to enter the conventional undergraduate courses designed for the inexperienced. These courses must not be a channel to easily earned credits for promotion or a higher degree. Successful teachers, supervisors, and administrators in elementary and high school service should not be ignored as a potential source of supply for these classes.

15. Only colleges and universities which conform to the highest standards of accreditation should be authorized to prepare teachers. 16. Parents have full responsibility for the deportment of their children during the preschool years, and they must also carry their